Hinkley, 55, has spent two decades retracing the steps of such legendary plant explorers as Robert Fortune (1812-80), Jean Marie Delavay (1834-95), Armand David (1826-1900), Ernest “Chinese” Wilson (1876-1930) and George Forrest (1873-1932).

Theirs may have been the golden age of Asian plant collection, but the spirit of the period is very much alive among a handful of 21st-century collectors such as Hinkley. His work may take decades more to flower in western gardens, but the tradition, the impulse to brighten our lives with fantastic Asian plants, persists.